Cause Baby Your A Firework, Lucius <3

[LAURYN AVERY HADSON]

♥do you have a light

Does what I'm wearing seem to shock you Well that's okay Cause what I'm thinking about you is not okay Got it on my mind to change my ways But I dont think I can be anything other than me I dont think I can be anything other than me Do you have a light, can you make me feel alright Theres plenty of light to go around If you think it's right when you hit me to the ground Well light me up when Im down Light me up when I'm down Does what Im saying seem to haunt you well thats okay cause what im

Lauryn wasn’t excited about tonight. It was Alice’s birthday and she was going to spend the night with her ex-husband. But she would do it for her daughter. She knew Alice would love it if her two parents shared a dinner with her. Granted Alice was only four but it didn’t matter. Lauryn knew that Alice had a hard time dealing with the fact that her parents were divorced. She didn’t know all the specifics of it all, but she knew that mommy and daddy didn’t live together anymore. She wished that she didn’t have to put her daughter through this, but she knew that it was something that couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t in the plan to be divorced this young in her life, but it had become something that had at the time seemed essential. The problem now is that she was regretting her choice, a lot in fact.

She was still very much in love with Lucius. She had tried many times not to be. To forget about him. To forget that she had ever felt anything for him. But apparently it didn’t work that way. She was learning this the hard way. So she was doing everything she could to get herself and Alice ready for dinner. It wasn’t exactly easy to get a four year old little girl ready for anything on time. She tended to want to run around with her tutu on, maybe some of her Barbie heels, ect. When Lauryn had finally got her dressed the first time, Alice had spilled her juice everywhere, causing Lauryn to have to first clean up the mess and then get Alice in the shower again and changed into new clothing. This seems to always happen when they actually have to be somewhere on time. Or in this case ready on time so that they can be picked up.

She had offered to just meet Lucius at the restaurant, but he had insisted, and so she was freaking out even more. She really didn’t want him to see her place. It was small, insanely small in fact, but it was all she could afford on a teacher’s salary. She had gotten used to the large home they had shared when they were all together. Perks of being rich she guessed. Anyways, it was small and not really in the greatest neighborhood, but it didn’t matter to her because she worked hard. She was however, considering going back into her business. Forging that is. The problem then became that she needed to get back into contact with some of her old friends and she wasn’t sure how good of an idea that would be.

She had finally gotten Alice ready, and had taken away her daughters juice, not letting her spill it on herself again. She had showered and was getting dressed when the power went out. “Damn” she mumbled to herself. She knew she had paid the bill. She went out to the living room, carefully. “Alice.” She called out. She found her daughter, sitting on the couch, clutching her teddy bear. She picked up her daughter and walked over to the window, careful not to trip over anything. She looked outside and saw that all of the lights were out. “great.” She mumbled again. She was about to try to find her cellphone to see if it would work, when there was a knock on her door. That had to be Lucius, ready for dinner. Too bad they wouldn’t be going out to dinner tonight.

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY MAIZIE MOO AT ATF. PLEASE DO NOT STEAL.

[LUCIUS WILLIAM REINHARDT]

On this particular day, Lucius Reinhardt was in a mood. He wasn't all that sure what kind of mood exactly, but he was undoubtedly in a mood. He knew he was in one because, besides the fact that he just felt inherently off from the moment he mustered the strength to get out of bed, his boss, Doctor Rebeca Armstrong, commented after a few hours of research and pouring over videos and documents. She had asked if something was wrong. This was something that the research psychology team at Harvard rarely did, ask each other how they were. It was an unwritten rule on their team, simply because they all knew that if they started asking and talking, they'd all start psychoanalyzing each other and that just didn't make for a good, productive workplace. But she asked anyways and Lucius didn't know how to answer. He had been taking his medicine like a good depressed child for the past two months after Alice, his beloved daughter, had mentioned that "daddy always looks gloomy!" For her sake, he knew he had to do better and be better.

He ended up telling his boss the truth, she'd know it if he lied anyways, that he figured that the reason he was feeling off was because he was having dinner with his ex that he was in fiery unrequited love with. He kept telling himself that for his daughter's sake, they had to be on good terms. The American divorce rate may be high but honestly, how many four year olds have divorced parents already? Lucius's parents had divorced when he was ten and that was bad enough--he knew only three kids in his class that had divorced parents at that time. He couldn't even imagine how it must be on his little girl. It was one of the many things that he hated about himself, and he hated that the most: that he couldn't make his child's home life more normal than his own was. For that reason, he was determined to do everything in his power to at least have a decent relationship with Lauryn. And, being honest with himself, it was a convenient excuse to still talk to her, look at her, yearn for her. It was better than brooding about her every night (which he did anyways). Or at least, that's what he told himself. His mother was probably right, she was always right, if he wanted to get over her, he needed to separate himself from her. But that would do Alison no good. And Lucius just couldn't handle his baby girl being sad.

He kept telling himself that it was all for her when he got ready to go to pick his girls up. Though he didn't have an excuse for why he made sure to look as good as possible, or why he made sure he didn't look like gloom or doom. That wasn't all for Alice. Alice probably could give three shakes of a rat's ass what her dad looked like, as long as he wasn't depressed. After spending an unusual amount of time in front of the mirror practicing not looking miserable, Lucius set out into the Bostonian traffic to pick up Lauryn and Alice for his daughter's birthday dinner. When he was stuck at a stoplight, he checked the back seat for her birthday gifts: a couple colouring books, a new 100 crayon set and a stuffed husky. He couldn't help smiling at the husky--University of Washington was one of his Alma Maters and he liked the aspect of his daughter with a husky. Maybe I could get her a real one...I wonder if she'd like it. he mused.

When he finally got to Lauryn's apartment complex, as he walked up to her apartment the power flickered and then darkness. "You have got to be fucking kidding me!" He yelled out to no one in particular and let out a massive groan. The perfect day for the power to go out. He took the stairs two at a time, tripping a couple times, to get to his daughter as fast as possible. God forbid he got there and she was sobbing. That would make Lucius more than angry. In the dark too, he had one hell of a time finding Lauryn's apartment, but with the help of his phone, he finally found it. He knocked twice, "Lauryn, it's me. What the fu--" He stopped himself before swearing, Do better for your daughter, Lucius, do better, and continued "Ahh, what's going on with the power?" He tapped his foot as he waited for the door to open. All he asked for was a good, no drama, happy night with his family all together. Was that too much for a man to ask for?